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Friday, July 11, 2014

Happy to renew my sub to Ancestry

I have been trying to locate some descendants of my dad's Aunty Polly for over 25 years but have failed dismally.

I have found various references to members of the family on The Ryerson Index, in Cemetery indexes and via Trove. I have quite a few photos of Polly's two children in my Dad's and Uncle's photo albums which I have wanted to share with their families.

You can guess what's coming. Earlier in the week I logged on to Ancestry and, as one does from time to time, did a new search for Polly's married name, McDonnell, to see if there was anything new around. I found a reference to Polly in a private tree. I quickly sent off a message to the tree owner.

B I N G O Last night I got a response from the owner of the tree, Polly's grandson, with the news that his father, my Dad's first cousin, is alive and well in Queensland and interested in family history and stories. My new found second cousin sent me some info, I sent him some, he sent more, I am getting some more together to send him today. The great information exchange is on.

Sometimes (ok often) I grumble about the annual fees I have been paying to Ancestry for ten years but today I am so happy that I have unfettered access to their offerings without which I would never have found this lost branch of the family.

And as for Ancestry - I have a World subscription, and in reality probably don't get my money's worth each year as I'm just not getting time to do my own research these days (too much blogging instead). But I have found things on there that I don't believe I would have found elsewhere, so I still count it as a very valuable research tool. And on the rare occasion I do get time, it's nice to be able to simply log on and search.